SBI Cards to add a million customers

As credit card spending in India is reaching new high, SBI Cards and Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a joint venture with GE Capital, has targeted to add over one million customers in the next three years. Currently it has a customer base of 2.3 million customers and it issues about 50, 000 SBI Cards per month.

Speaking on this in Pune, Kadambi Narahari, CEO, SBI Cards said, “the credit card companies were doing business till 2006 and had 27 million customers in India.”

Post 2006, the credit card usage fell in India drastically from 27 million to 17 million till 2010. Due to global slowdown and exit of some players from the credit card business, the number of credit card holders reduced.

On an average, an Indian credit card holder spends only $755 (Rs 40,000) annually, as against the Australians ($3,352), and even the Thais ($2,084).

China has over 200 million credit card holders.

Speaking about SBI Cards' plans, Narhari said,  "Apart from metro cities we are targeting Tier-I and Tiet-II cities as they are more profitable. Our effort is to add over one million customers by end of 2016. The facilities like ticket booking and our tie up with Indian Railways have helped us to boost the business. Also, we are co-branding with other banks like Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Maharashtra and Karur Vysya Bank.

In the first year 2012-13, it will add 6 lakh, eight lakh in the year2014-15 and 10 lakh by end of 2016."

According to data released by Reserve Bank of India, in the first three months this financial year, consumers spent Rs 28,465 crore on their credit cards across point-of-sale (POS) terminal.

On a sequential basis, spending on credit cards increased 9.9 per cent.